"After the Syrian uprising morphed into an armed struggle, the Syrian government increasingly lost control over vast areas of territory. With the loss of State control, its imposed rule on media faded, enabling media to flourish in those areas. In territories it still controlled, its grip became eve
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n tighter consequently forcing many reporters out. By the end of 2013, media workers began to flee their new acquired space, too, after the extremist group called ISIS - “the Islamic State” - showed its might and other military groups also deprived media from the freedom it desired. In addition to the Syrian government-emptied territories, this dire situation in the opposition areas led to the migration of Syrian media to other countries, mainly to neighboring Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. Like other refugees, journalists had to start a new life there. They found themselves in different sets of circumstances than they had experienced at home, especially in terms of regulations and living and working conditions, and they faced threats coming both from inside and outside their host country.RSF tried to dig deeper in the situation of exiled Syrian journalists and shed more light on the humanitarian, living and working conditions of media workers, exiled in their new shelter-countries, and on the dark side of Syrian journalists’ lives when reporting on their fellow citizens’ living conditions. RSF interviewed a total of 24 journalists in Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. Their names are not mentioned. Most of them asked to remain anonymous, fearing retaliation against themselves or their family members still in Syria. The source of fear was the Assad regime, ISIS, other groups in Syria, the authorities of their host country as well as the media organization where they used to work or are still working." (Page 3)
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"Drawing on fieldwork among Kurdish broadcasters in Turkey and Europe, this article shows how ethnic media mediate nationhood in a conflict context. Despite rising interest in the media-nationhood nexus, and the expansion of studies on ethnic media, little is known about ethnic media in conflicts in
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volving state and non-state actors. This study investigates three Kurdish broadcasters, Roj-TV, Gün-TV, and TRT-6. The collected data include expert interviews and informal conversations with employees. Through a grounded theory approach, a model is developed that proposes four modes of mediated nationhood, in which the relation to the state and the role of ethnicity are key elements. Next, it is demonstrated how mediated nationhood in conflicts is characterized by multiple constraints, and how this affects the perceived roles and ethnic belongings among media professionals." (Abstract)
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"While the Turkish media market looks diverse from the outside because of the large numbers of outlets, it is increasingly concentrated in terms of opinion. The Media Ownership Monitor Turkey, carried out with IPS Communication Foundation/ bianet between July and October 2016, shows that the governm
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ent not only openly endangers media pluralism through recent closures of news outlets but that there is much deeper dimension of economic leverage, which allows almost complete control of mass media." (http://www.mom-rsf.org)
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"Following the abortive July coup in Turkey, the government has accelerated and intensified a crackdown on independent media which had already been underway for more than a year. Under the state of emergency declared in the aftermath of the coup attempt, the government has closed down independent me
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dia organizations and arrested scores of journalists, effectively decimating the free and independent media community, an essential pillar of any functioning democracy. Silencing Turkey’s Media documents five important components of this crackdown on independent domestic media in Turkey: 1) the use of the criminal justice system to prosecute and jail journalists for terrorism, insulting public officials, or crimes against the state; 2) threats and physical attacks on journalists and media organizations; 3) governmental interference with editorial independence and pressure on media organizations to fire critical journalists; 4) the government’s takeover or closure of private media companies; and 5) restrictions on distribution, fines and closure of critical television stations. The report shows how the media crackdown has not only targeted media and journalists associated with the Gülen movement, which the government alleges was behind the July coup attempt, but also pro-Kurdish media and independent voices critical of the government such as the newspaper Cumhuriyet and its journalists." (Back cover)
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"The aim of the present book is to offer an overview and report on Strategic Communication for Non-Profit-Organisations and the Challenges and Alternative Approaches. Considering the assumption that a key principle of strategic communication is the achievement of organisational goals, the majority o
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f research developed in the field has used business environments to develop theories, models, empirical insights and case studies. Here, we take a step towards new approaches centred on the concept of non-profit in various dimensions and from various perspectives, showing the diversity and complexity around this subject and at the same time the need of further theoretical and empirical work that provides frameworks and also tools for further understanding of the phenomena." (Publisher description)
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"This is a book about free speech narratives. Stories about how imagination and rational thinking in wildly different cultures capture, imagine, and conceptualize what freedom of speech means. 1989 and 2011 are only two recent (in historic perspective) turning points when freedom of speech and freed
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om of the press emerged, or at least powerful efforts were made to support its emergence, although disheartening backlashes followed in several countries. This book also tells many other free speech narratives that emerged, or evolved outside the frames of 1989 and 2011, also with several troublesome repercussions. The fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, the year of largely velvet revolutions (in the words of Vaclav Havel), brought freedom of speech to Central Europe and Eastern Europe. It also increased the hope that freedom of speech and democracy can prevail in more and more countries on the earth. This book examines, in some historic perspective, to what extent this hope has become reality since and prior to 1989, also in light of the Arab revolutions of 2011." (Introduction, page 1)
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"This report, which has been produced by a group of distinguished journalists and their supporters, examines the broad scope of the crisis. It covers countries where media are on the frontline of tough political battles, such as Egypt and Turkey. In Ukraine, for instance, the practice of paid-for jo
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urnalism is a tool routinely used by politicians at election time. The same is true in India. In other countries, including Nigeria, Philippines, and Colombia the precarious working conditions of news staff provide fertile conditions for corruption and “brown envelopes” or under-the-table cash payments to reporters and editors which are a routine feature of journalistic work. The struggles facing journalists in settled democracies, such as the United Kingdom and Denmark, are less brazen, but no less challenging and in a range of countries across the Western Balkans with a shared and painful history, media corruption hinders aspirations to break free from the legacy of war, censorship and political control during decades of communist rule. The story is of an uphill struggle. Everywhere there is a crisis of confidence inside newsrooms caused by crumbling levels of commitment to ethics, a lowering of the status of journalistic work and a pervasive lack of transparency over advertising, ownership and corporate and political affiliations. Government control over lucrative state advertising, which is often allocated to media according to their political bias, remains widespread. At the same time, the elimination in most countries of the invisible wall separating editorial and advertising has created a surge of so-called “native advertising,” hidden advertorials and paid-for journalism. It was this conflict of interest that plunged the crisis-prone UK press into a new bout of handwringing in February 2015 when Peter Oborne, a leading political journalist, quit his job at the Daily Telegraph accusing the management of censoring stories about HSBC bank, a leading advertiser caught up in a tax scandal. These reports tell essentially the same story of deep cuts in editorial investment, undue pressure on newsrooms, and media increasingly dependent upon atypical models of ownership in which media have become the trophy possessions of powerful figures and institutions in pursuit of wider corporate and political objectives." (Introduction, page iii-iv)
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"Internet freedom around the world has declined for the fifth consecutive year, with more governments censoring information of public interest and placing greater demands on the private sector to take down offending content. State authorities have also jailed more users for their online writings, wh
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ile criminal and terrorist groups have made public examples of those who dared to expose their activities online. This was especially evident in the Middle East, where the public flogging of liberal bloggers, life sentences for online critics, and beheadings of internet-based journalists provided a powerful deterrent to the sort of digital organizing that contributed to the Arab Spring. In a new trend, many governments have sought to shift the burden of censorship to private companies and individuals by pressing them to remove content, often resorting to direct blocking only when those measures fail. Local companies are especially vulnerable to the whims of law enforcement agencies and a recent proliferation of repressive laws. But large, international companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter have faced similar demands due to their significant popularity and reach." (Page 1)
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"For this assessment more than 390 surveys were made in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey [...] In addition to the survey a further 150 in-depth interviews were held, complemented by a Focus Group in each country, which
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provided useful background and analytical information for the narrative parts of this report. The baseline assessment focused on the 4 objectives of the Guidelines: 1. Enabling environment and resulting responsibilities of main actors, 2. Advancing media to a modern level of internal governance, 3. Qualitative and trustworthy investigative journalism available to citizens and 4. Increasing capacity and representativeness of journalist professional organisations. In respect of the enabling environment the survey findings show that most countries have made reasonable or good progress in the field of establishing legislation and most have sufficient provisions to guarantee freedom of expression. However, there remains a serious problem in the proper implementation of the legislation ..." (Page 10)
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"The report reveals that for most respondents, Christianity is a concept that is foreign to Turkish culture. Whilst this situation is a consequence of the low numbers of Christians, it is also influenced by educational content and the media. Despite the rich history of Christianity in Turkey, the ex
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istence of numerous ancient Christian sites and centuries of living side by side, only a fraction of the public has a good level of knowledge about Christian history and practice. More creative and holistic inclusion of Christianity in formal education curricula and in the mass media can contribute to improved understanding and the public’s ability to recoup and value its lost heritage. More than half of the respondents state that neither the media nor the public is objective in its treatment of non-Muslims. It may be helpful to develop a deeper understanding of this reported partiality in future research. Questions also arise regarding the public’s significant over-estimation of the proportion of Christians in the general population and whether this is linked to fear or perceptions of bias." (Conclusion)
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"Since the mid-2000s, an ever-increasing number of Turkish dramas have been exported to several markets and commanded high prices and ratings. To explain the transnationalization of Turkish dramas, this article explores the political economic imperatives as opposed to the commonly cited cultural pro
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ximity thesis. Based on in-depth interviews with television producers, distributors and executives, it analyses the burgeoning of the Turkish production sector, the search for additional revenue streams in foreign markets by Turkish producers, their integration into global networks of television trade, governmental support and the converging local and global dynamics that created favourable export conditions for Turkish dramas." (Abstract)
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"Women on average are 14% less likely to own a mobile phone than men, which translates into 200 million fewer women than men owning mobile phones. Women in South Asia are 38% less likely to own a phone than men, highlighting that the gender gap in mobile phone ownership is wider in certain parts of
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the world. Even when women own mobile phones, there is a significant gender gap in mobile phone usage, which prevents them from reaping the full benefits of mobile phone ownership. Women report using phones less frequently and intensively than men, especially for more sophisticated services such as mobile internet. In most countries, fewer women than men who own phones report using messaging and data services beyond voice. Cost remains the greatest barrier overall to owning and using a mobile phone, particularly for women, who often have less financial independence than men." (Executive summary)
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"The data in this report was collected between December 20, 2014 and February 2, 2015 and represents the views of 1161 respondents from that time. The goal of the project is to understand how people in Turkey perceive and value the debate over Internet freedoms in Turkey and how they employ the Inte
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rnet and social media as alternative information resources within a heavily censored mass media environment." (Page 2)
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